


Next Door

by demonheathen (ElliGrovster)



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Depression, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gun Violence, Implied Sexual Content, Other, Season/Series 08, Sexual Content, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-01 06:05:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12698922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElliGrovster/pseuds/demonheathen
Summary: The only way past the pain is through it. And healing takes time for Spencer, but it doesn't hurt to have others along the way. One distraction that manages to take the pain away is the arrival of a mystery person in his apartment building. If anything, she just reminds him more of Maeve. And he wants to know more.





	1. Giftbaskets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only a day after the loss of his beloved Maeve, Spencer finds himself meeting a stranger in his apartment building.

Spencer trudged upstairs to his apartment, his keys in his hands. After the long trip back from San Francisco, his body ached for rest. He shifted around the gift baskets from his friends, his fingers clutching around his key.

Unlocking his front door, Spencer heard heavy footsteps on the stairs behind him. Propping the door open, he kicked a few of the gift baskets inside and glanced over his shoulder to the stranger with a hood on. Their arms were full of brown paper bags and their finger was looped in their apartment keys.

Spencer kept an eye on the person, his hands bracing the doorway while the person passed him. They dropped the paper bags, then fumbled with their keys to open the door to Mrs. Callaghan’s apartment. Taking a step inside, Spencer kept his head low until the stranger called out to him.

“Hey. You’re Spencer, right?” The voice was light and feminine, but raspy, Spencer assumed, by the woman’s lack of sleep.

Reid looked back into the hallway at the person. The girl shrugged her hood down to reveal long, platinum-blonde hair. Her eyes were covered by dark-rimmed sunglasses and her neck was hidden by a maroon scarf.

“Y-yeah.” He choked out, his eyes wandering over the girl’s hidden appearance. _Strange._

She nodded quickly, then opened the door to Mrs. Callaghan’s apartment. She disappeared inside for a moment, then returned with two more gift baskets.

“My aunt, the old bat, snatched a couple of your baskets.” She handed them off to Spencer, who noted the edges of a bruise peeking out from her glasses. “I’m sorry.”

“No, uh, thank you. For returning these. Your aunt would probably put these to better use though,” Spencer said, turning to put the extra baskets inside.

The girl turned and walked back down the hall.

“What’s your name?” Reid asked, watching the girl step inside her aunt’s apartment.

The girl looked around, over her shoulders, crossing her arms. “M-Maris.”

Reid stared down at his fingers intertwined. _Maris._ “Nice to meet you.”

 

 

Spencer woke up to the smell of coffee and realized his alarm never went off. He sat up, holding his most recent novel against his chest. He thought of what happened the night before, meeting Maris, and shifted to his feet. He went to the small kitchenette and opened a gift basket, rifling through its contents to find coffee chocolate.

Picking out the bag, he tore it open and popped a few drops into his mouth. Spencer chewed carefully his snack before going to the bathroom to brush his teeth. In front of his mirror, his showed his teeth and brushed carefully while music began to drum in from the opposite wall.

He could only assume it was Mrs. Callaghan’s television, but from the soft creaking that came soon after, Spencer chalked it up to a bedroom. He’d never heard people move on the opposite side of his apartment, with his elder neighbor sitting in front of the television most of her days.

He slowed down in brushing his teeth when the soft pitter-patter of feet started across the hardwood. Spencer could only imagine it as the girl he met the night before, keeping her tread light to not disturb her aunt anymore. The music kept playing and Maris shuffled her feet lightly across the floor in a dance.

Spencer listened to the beat through the wall, figuring that it was a tune from the 80’s. He rinsed his toothbrush in the sink then doubled over to spit. If he wasted anymore time focused on the stranger girl next door, he’d miss work.


	2. Caffeine

Spencer barely missed a shot at the coffee pot running late to the office. His glasses were pushed haphazardly up the bridge of his nose and his papers were stuffed into his shoulder satchel. He stopped just outside of the double-glass doors to fix his clothes, not wanting to give away anymore of his dishevelment then walked inside and to the coffee machine.

He felt the stares on the back of his head as he poured a hearty cup of caffeine. Spencer mentally prepared himself, before turning around, for the overwhelming return back to work. He hadn’t seen Garcia or Morgan when he stepped off of the elevator and he was ready for them to be the firsts to comfort his return.

When he turned around, his welcome was shifted between Rossi and JJ first, then Garcia. She curled her arms around Spencer’s lithe frame and squeezed him against her.

“It’s nice to see you too, Garcia.” Spencer held his coffee mug away from her body in hopes of not to spill it.

Morgan rounded up the welcome wagon with a gentle pat of the shoulder. “We’d been missing our brainac.”

“I’m sure of it.” Spencer nodded, excusing himself from his friends just as Hotchner walked through the doors with Dr. Blake in tow.

Spencer stopped by his desk, picking up a notepad and paper just at Hotch called the team into the meeting room. He agreed to be there in a minute before taking a sip of his coffee, remembering the tune he’d heard through his bathroom wall.

The more he thought of it, the more it alluded him. Spencer uncapped his pen, holding his notepad close as he crudely sketched a music scale. He narrowly deducted the first two notes of the song, but the third annoyed him.

If he tapped his fingers anymore, he felt he’d only annoy himself to forget it. Spencer let it go, folding the notepad under his arm before tucking the pen in his ear. He could only hear the song in his mind, and he could barely carry the tune.

“Sweet child of mine.” Alex smiled, passing behind Spencer to her seat as he walked into the meeting room.

“I’m sorry?” he turned to his colleague with his brows knitted together in confusion.

“The song, kid,” Derek added, which prompted the team members to look at him, “I know my Guns ‘n’ Roses.”

Spencer turned to Derek with the same look, then back to Alex only for him to realize what she meant.

“The humming,” Alex prompted, “I used to love that song. Where’d you hear it, Spencer?”

He couldn’t say, he opened his mouth in a stammer but was cut off by Aaron noting that they had bigger things to worry about. Spencer curtly agreed, sliding into a seat as Garcia stood up, prompting the board to flash the map, their next destination, and their possible suspect.

Spencer pulled out his notepad and quickly wrote down the name of the song under its scale, thinking about how it muffled through the walls.


End file.
